From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Cheyenne, Wyoming

What is the correlation between soil temperature and pumpkin growth? Is it possible to get 20 pounds + per day growth with 65 degree soil temps?

8/15/2004 10:28:38 PM

Puyallup, WA

Anything is possible! What are the nightime air temperatures?

8/16/2004 1:25:24 AM

I'm with Gordon... GO UTES!

I've been wanting to explore this topic as well... mostly
because I can't get 20 pounds a day even though everything
else looks good. I spent all day yesterday looking for my
thermometer.........

Assuming that the soil temp is low, what could you do about
it? Other than, preseason mounding of the soil. Probably a
good idea for next year...

My nighttime air temps have been in the lower 50's. And with
my plant's dense canopy, almost no light reaches the soil
except around the stump where the oldest leaves have died
off a bit.

It might be nice if a lot of growers simply posted their
soil temp......

8/16/2004 10:24:35 AM

Southern WI

Last week I put one side of my silt fence (black) back up, not sure how much it helped. I have a 2 sided tarp and was thinking of exposing the black side, but don't want to heat the pumpkin. If I had more than 1 pumpkin left I would experiment. Also thought of putting some weed block back down. What does eveyone think ?

8/16/2004 1:44:49 PM

Rhode Island

beet
you could try laying land scape fabric down between the side vines
this would heat the soil a bit more ( if the sun hits it ) and hold it in longer at night

next season you may need to install some heating cables around the base and down the main ( underground )

however, if you dont get sunlite on your plants you may want to look for a new spot or, open this spot up more

pap

8/17/2004 7:04:26 AM